Thai Public Broadcasting Service Removes Interview with Taiwan Foreign Minister, Allegedly at China's Behest

Taiwan News (Keoni Everington) reports:

Foreign Minister Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) on Sunday (Nov. 12) mocked China's government for lecturing Thailand over freedom of the press following his interview on a Thai television station.

Wu was interviewed by Thai Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) anchor Phongsathat Sukhaphong on Nov. 1 in Taipei, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). An interview segment was broadcast on Thai evening news under the headline "Taiwan's foreign minister assesses the development trends with China's military unification with Taiwan," on Nov. 3, and the complete interview was uploaded to the station's YouTube channel, as can be seen on this archived page.

During the interview, Wu said China is using various means such as military pressure, economic coercion, and international isolation in an attempt to force Taiwan to surrender utilizing the Sun Tzu lesson of "subduing the enemy without fighting." In the face of China's provocations, Wu said Taiwan has always played a responsible role, avoided becoming a party that provokes conflicts, and is willing to engage in cross-strait dialogue on the premise of equality….

On Saturday (Nov. 11), the Chinese embassy in Bangkok issued a statement on Facebook in which it characterized Wu as a "Taiwan independence separatist" who allegedly "propagated Taiwan independence fallacies" during the interview. It claimed that the Thai PBS interview with Wu "harmed China's interests and hurt the Chinese people's feelings."

The embassy said any action that "holds a candled to the devil" on issues tied to the territorial integrity of China and "separatism" contravenes the friendship between the Chinese and Thailand. It then warned, "Any practice that hurts (another) country and its people under the pretext of the freedom of press is merely an abuse of the freedom of press."

That same day, Chinese state-run mouthpiece the Global Times on X urged Thai PBS to "effectively correct relevant wrongdoings," including advocating the "fallacy of Taiwan independence." It repeated the embassy's claims that any practice that inflicts harm on another country under the guise of press freedom is "an abuse of press freedom." …

As of Sunday, the video of Wu's interview with Thai PBS has been removed from public view on YouTube and the URL now leads to a blank page which reads, "Video unavailable. This video is private."

Reminds me of Parts V and VI of Prof. Ge Chen's The "Constitutional" Rise of Chinese Speech Imperialism, which discusses China's attempts to suppress anti-Communist-China speech in other countries. Thanks to noted Sinologist Prof. Victor Mair for the pointer; note that the archived interview is in English.